Rev. Barbara Meyers' Ministry

Quarterly Report to MPUUC Board of Trustees

March 2009

 

To the MPUUC Board of Trustees,

 

The following is a list of the activities I have engaged in during the last quarter as part of my affiliated community ministry.  Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

 

Yours in faith,

 

 

 

Rev. Barbara Meyers

 

Education

Classes and Seminars Given

• Led a workshop on January 24 at the Los Gatos congregation to educate their pastoral care team about mental health.
• San Jose congregation is contacting other congregations to try and get a critical mass for me to train
• Congregations and Organizations are starting to use Mental Health Matters videos for education:
  • The UU Church or Worster, MA is using the Mental Health Matters video on Anxiety as part of a mental health education program.
  • The UU church in Hartford, Connecticut will be using Mental Health Matters video on Older Adult mental health to start out teaching about mental health in their congregation. They will continue using these videos regularly as part of their effort, supplementing them with local speakers.
  • Chair of Alameda County Mental Health Board will use the Mental Health Matters video on First Psychotic Break as education for Mental Health Board members to teach them what psychosis is and how it affects families.
• Status of Prior Problem: Disappointed at how training of ministers is going.
  • My workshop on "Embracing Mental Health Issues in Our Ministries" was accepted for CONVO in Ottawa in November, a large UU ministers Association retreat. This is a very important opportunity to get the message out.
  • Wrote a short document: Mental Health Information for Ministers which has brief descriptions of the major mental disorders with specific suggestions of what a minister can do. Several ministers are reviewing it for me. I intend to give it to any minister who wants it.

Classes and Seminars Taken

• Attended web training from SAMHSA on Promoting Acceptance and Social Inclusion for People with Mental Health Problems in the Workplace, on January 27.

Retreats Attended

• Attended a retreat at San Damiano Retreat Center Feb 24-25 on "The Experiential Model of Learning" for Unitarian Universalist ministers in the Pacific Central District.
• Attended MPUUC Annual Retreat "Come Back to Nature" March 20-22 Monte-Toyon retreat center

County Education Effort Continues

Plans have been made to have a state-wide spirituality conference is June 1-2 at the Marriott,1001 Broadway in Oakland City Center. I plan to attend.

Healing

Reaching Across

• Continued compensated job at Reaching Across organization, for quarter-time work. Attend Monday support group meetings, two Interfaith Support Groups per month, most Wednesday group activities, and Friday craft days.

Support Groups

• Continued co-leading new interfaith support group for people with depression and sadness.
• Continued to recommend support group for families of those with mental illness.

Pastoral Associates

• Continue to prepare training materials for Pastoral Associates.
• Made several visits to congregational members with mental health problems, at home and in the hospital.

Priestly

• Worship leader on March 29 on the subject of "We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For"
• Worship associate on January 11, Feb 15.
• Attended monthly Pastoral Associates meetings, and prepared training for each meeting.
• Continued being a mentor to a UU community minister in preliminary fellowship. Monthly meetings. Made plans for 7 of us ministers to visit SKSM and talk about community ministry in early April. Compiled a comprehensive document about community ministry for that meeting. May make this available more widely after the meeting.

Social Justice

Community Awareness

• Mental Health Matters Public Access TV Show
  • Taped shows on: Byron Williams - Building a Meaningful Life in January, Grief in February and Mental Health of Older Adults in March
  • Topics for the next shows are: Alternative Mental Health Care, and Latino Community.
  • Shows are broadcast throughout Alameda County on Comcast TV on public access TV stations at 9:30pm every Thursday. They are also available from anywhere on the internet.
  • Status of Previous Problem:
    • Viewership improved after the Byron Williams show and a story in his column about the show.
    • NAMI Alameda Co. put an article about the show in their newsletter and will put in monthly blurbs when each show is produced.
    • PCD said they didn't want to do anything more often than every 9 months.
• Mental Health pages on MPUUC web site continue to be widely accessed.

Resigned from Alameda County Mental Health Services Act Planning Council I resigned from this Planning Council after reviewing how to spend my precious time. I can still attend meetings as a member of the public if there are particular issues that I am interested in. Earlier, the Workforce Education and Training piece of the MHSA for Alameda was created, approved, went to public review, and will go to the State for approval this month.

Access, a new UU Accessibility group

• Helped to create the website for the new UU accessibility group Equual Access. Take a look at: www.equualaccess.org
• Mental Health Caucus under the auspices of Equual Access. Status: we have started monthly conference calls, writing mission statements and prioritizing activities.

Books Read

• Van Gogh and God - A Creative Spiritual Quest, by Cliff Edwards, Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1989. This is a fascinating book looking at the life, letters and art work of Van Gogh. It follows his religious path from Calvinist, to more liberal Christianity, and finally the influence of Buddhism and other eastern religions on his work.
• Replay, by Ken Grimwood, New York: Harper, 1986. This is a story about a man who dies and wakes up as a college freshman with his life to life over. This replay happens several times, each time with him learning more about how to life a life.
• Henri Nouwen and Soul Care - A Ministry of Integration, by Wil Hernandez, New York: Paulist Press, 2008. I have always admired Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Priest who lived his last years as a chaplain in a house for mentally ill people. In this book, I was delighted and surprised to find that articulated a personal theology very similar to mine. He called it a "tripolar spirituality" having three dimensions: inwardly directed, upwardly compliant and outwardly committed. I have always described mine as seeing the divine within each person, between people, and transcendent.
• Henri Nouwen - A Spirituality of Imperfection, by Wil Hernandez, New York: Paulist Press, 2006. More on Henri Nouwen and his view that one achieves wholeness through brokenness, something that I, too, deeply believe.
• The Lemon Tree - An Arab, a Jew and the heart of the Middle East, by Sandy Tolan, New York: Bloomsbury, 2006. The true story of a Palestinian whose family was evicted during the Israeli war for independence and the Israeli woman whose family moved into their home. These two met after they became adults and formed a meaningful friendship that opened each others eyes to the experiences and truths in the stories of each other's peoples.
• The Center Cannot Hold - My Journey Through Madness, by Elyn R. Saks, New York: Hyperion, 2007. The remarkable story of Saks who, despite having schizophrenia, has been able to become a tenured member of the USC Law School. The central lesson is that she has found a richly satisfying life, and that she wants to give hope to others.
• Three Cups of Tea - One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, New York: Penguin, 2006. American Greg Mortenson has single-handedly managed against all odds to build many schools, mostly for girls, in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. His book tells how he came to do this work. It was recently studied by many book reading groups in Fremont who were rewarded by a visit by Mortenson, himself, which I and my daughter were able to attend.
• The Quiet Room - A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett. This is a harrowing tale of a young woman's descent into schizophrenia and her successful attempt after years of hospitalizations to finally get some control over her life. It doesn't pull any punches and is very realistic.
• The Day the Voices Stopped - A Memoir of Madness and Hope by Ken Steele and Claire Berman, New York: Basic Books, 2001. The life story of Ken Steele who began hearing voices at age 14 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Abandoned by his family when he was 18, he went through a myriad of hospitals, half-way houses, and treatments until the medication Risperdol finally silenced the voices when he was 47.
• The Blood of the Lamb by Peter de Vries. Boston: Little, Brown, 1961. A novel about a man who loses his faith as a child when his brother dies, and tries to recover it in manhood when his daughter dies of leukemia.

Personal

• Need to continually work at life balance and stress management. Taught a class in self-care to help me learn this.
• My computer died in January and I got a new one HP 64-bit running Windows Vista. Thanks to an excellent backup system, I didn't lose any files or email. But, it still took several days to get everything I wanted to be installed. I realize how dependent I am on a computer for running my life.
• Weaving. New wave design finished!
• Keeping up with my exercise routine.
• I have tentatively decided to pursue a certificate in Spiritual Direction from the Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley. It would start next summer and have 4 weeks of classes, 1 week per quarter, for a year.

Other

• Met with Community Ministry Advisory Committee every quarter
• Chaired MPUUC Mental Health Committee which meets every 6-8 weeks
• Attended MPUUC Board meetings in August, September, and October.
• Served as secretary to the Tri Cities Interfaith Council at its monthly meetings.